


Not Fair

by Katherine



Category: The Lion King (1994)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Always a Different Sex, Gen, Nala is male
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-26
Updated: 2020-06-26
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:02:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24930484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katherine/pseuds/Katherine
Summary: "It's not fair." Nala was visibly angry, his ears flat and tail lashing. Seeing him so upset tore at Sarafina's heart like claws, all the worse as he was so young still.
Relationships: Nala & Sarafina (The Lion King), Nala & Simba (The Lion King)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 12





	Not Fair

"It's not fair." Nala was visibly angry, his ears flat and tail lashing. Seeing him so upset tore at Sarafina's heart like claws, all the worse as he was so young still. Sarafina's only child, her unlucky son.

"I want to stay," Nala said. "Simba's my best friend." He was not taking well the prospect of leaving the pride, no matter how far in the future.

Sarafina squashed the urge to comfort her son; he wouldn't listen in this state, and any comfort could she honestly give would be hollow. The two young males of the pride were close friends, a bond that could have blossomed into love as they reached maturity, if only the situation of their lives were otherwise.

"You're his friend, not his brother," Sarafina said, voice roughened with her own anger at fate. Scar had scraped a place in the pride, but it was the tie of blood, his status as Mufasa's brother, that allowed that possibility. "Simba is a prince, and he's going to inherit the Pride Lands."

The fact of that was familiar to Nala, but Sarafina knew her son had not before understood what it meant for Nala's own future. If Simba were not the prince, if he could choose his own path, he and Nala could stay together all their lives. They might have formed a coalition of two. Brothers often did, and males who were close in age chased from the same birth pride occasionally could. But there was no place in an inherited pride for such a friend, or a beloved, of a king.

Nala dropped to the ground, his true hurt looking similar to a tantrum from his even younger days. He would grow out of cubhood, to a stage where he had to leave, when his life would diverge to elsewhere.

He would inevitably leave his mother behind, and all the rest of the pride he had been born to. And Simba would stay, and in time ascend to kingship. It would be hard and Nala, and was not fair, but Sarafina was old enough to know that life wasn't.


End file.
